 "Gukesh's positive attitude lauded as world champion returns to Freestyle Chess Tour: 'He just accepted bad results'")
Chess world champion D Gukesh had a winless run at the first leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 in Weissenhaus but that hasn’t dampened his spirits and the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster is back in Paris for the second leg . The Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 starts on Monday (7 April) with 12 top chess players competing for the winner’s crown.
**Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour Paris: Day 1 LIVE Blog**The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour has taken the sport by storm, creating a battle between the organisers, including world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, and the International Chess Federation, FIDE. Nonetheless, the storm has now calmed down and the focus is firmly on the games.
Gukesh had a trial by fire in the first leg as he finished eighth after failing to win a single game . He qualified for the knockouts by virtue of being eighth in the standings after the round-robin phase but did not win a single match in the tournament.
It has to be noted that Gukesh’s most favoured format is Classical chess which helped him become the youngest ever world chess champion at the age of 18 last year. He is still to leave a mark in other formats including Rapid, Blitz and Freestyle chess.
His recent struggles, however, did not stop him from giving it another try. While Alireza Firouzja and Hans Niemann dropped out of the Paris leg at the last minute, Gukesh will once again be seen competing on the Tour.
Freestyle Chess Tour co-founder praises Gukesh’s attitude
The co-founder of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour and businessman Jan Henric Buettner is impressed with Gukesh’s positive attitude and willingness to learn from failures. While speaking to the Times of India, Buettner said he was always confident Gukesh would return to the Paris leg.
“Gukesh is a humble, cool, and kind person. He just accepted the bad results. He didn’t do pretty well, but there was never a question of whether he’d participate in the next leg. He simply said, ‘I’ll do better next time,’” Buettner said.
“Anyway, we talked about this here in Paris. It was a short conversation (with Gukesh). He was very calm and accepted the situation. I think that’s great,” Buettner added.
The Paris leg, however, will not be easy for Gukesh as he faces some of the best players in the world and India. Besides Carlsen and Gukesh, the roster includes Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Richard Rapport, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidith Gujrathi.
“We have an incredible roster of 12 players… Just thinking about it. Four players won’t make it to the quarterfinals. And really, you could try to guess who those four would be, but it’s tough. It’s crazy to think about. Out of those 12, who would you even pick?” Buettner said.
Regardless of the competition, Gukesh will hope to have a better outing in Paris than in Weissenhaus.
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